Druid healing and 10-man raids

[jmdixon2]

As a resto druid I usually do raid healing, however, when I look at healing meters (I know that they are a bad barometer, but it can be a good guide based on role in the raid) and I am usually at 2/3 healing compared to everyone else, when normally the raid healer is higher based on number of targets in a raid. My heals get overridden by fast direct heals. I raid with a Holy Pally and a Resto Shaman as tank healers. I know that Pallies use Beacon of Light and Holy Light Glyph (healing melee) and need to spread the healing around and that Shamans Chain Heal (healing melee), but this decreases my affectiveness.

Should I be spamming (keeping Rejuv on all casters at all times so that if spike damage happens I can Swiftmend and ignoring mana efficiency as I rearly use Swiftmend [15 sec CD] becuase HoTs are not often on raid members when there is spike damage) on casters since they get left out of the 2 tank healer's aoe healing? Casters are usually spread out and that hurts me even more as the maybe the best aoe heal in the game (Wild Growth) is useless. Should we change the healing around? Should I change how I heal? I would like to maximize all the healers utility, but I don't think that is happening.

Thanks!

[Anarch]

I know there are druids out there who keep rejuv and 3lifeblooms on multiple targets the whole fight. its a lot of work but he does top healing all the time.

i tend to use regrowth a lot so theres a lot of those hots out there. i also learn which people tend to take more damage then the rest and thats who i keep rejuvs on. and I always use wild growth every time its up. theres different healing styles as a druid.

[Kinika]

What dungeons are you folks doing? 3 healers seems like a lot. At any rate, in the 10-mans I do with my guild (just Naxx and the occasional Vault or OS for now, we're just starting out), I as resto druid always tops the meters. I either heal with a holy paladin or a resto shaman. I can tell you what I do normally. I always keep up Regrowth's HoT and Rejuvenation on the tank(s). If any raid member takes damage, I throw them a Rejuvenation. When there's AoE damage, I throw a Wild Growth first, then a Rejuvenation on the ones who are still badly hurt. If they really need it, I Swiftmend - otherwise, a quick Nourish works. I almost never use Lifebloom. I think my ticks are healing the little damage taken too fast, so the other healer doesn't have to heal or by the time they get their heals off, most of the damage is mended. I don't wait for others to heal - I take the initiative and do it myself.

Otherwise, if I know there's going to be a lot of AoE damage coming, I toss Rejuvenation on as many targets as I can, and Wild Growth the melee, then the ranged, or vice versa. As cliche as it is, this really does help and can push you up in the meters, since the other healing classes have to wait for damage before they heal. You do it preemptively.

[jmdixon2]

I raid 10-man Ulduar and ToC10. In Naxx as the raid healer I always out healed the tank healers, but beyond that the mechanics of the fights require more spread out strategies. I don't really care about topping charts, I just want be useful in raids. My biggest problem is that when a member of the raid (non-tank) takes spike damage my fastest heals are either Rejuv/Swiftmend or Nurish (I admit that I use Regrowth often in place of Nurish). I believe both are slower than Shaman and Pallies fast heals (I could be wrong though). Should I Rejuv the raid so that when spike comes I can Swiftmend? Should I stop using Regrowth? Should I concentrate on Casters/Ranged only?

Thanks for your comments!

[bavarcarus]

when I'm healing and I've got free gcds I rejuv whoever I can, for a 10 man you can get the whole raid and have time to do a regrowth on both tanks before moving on. Really with druid shaman pally I would think you would put the shaman on the raid and druid maintaining hots on the tanks while helping out with the raid.

[Degrador]

I'm not trying to brag here but just mentioning it as it's basically what the thread's about. I'm the raid healer for our 10 man group (10 ToC, 10 H ToC, and occasional Uld) and I'm always first on the healing meters.

IMO raid healing as a resto druid is all about anticipation. There are very few boss fights out there that have completely random unexpected spike raid damage. Most fights that have AoE will have it hit everyone, and usually it's on a timer so that you can prepare for it. This means that ~10 seconds before that AoE ability is done you start Rejuv spamming the raid. This allows you to get Rejuv on everyone for when the AoE comes, and still have 8 seconds of it (3 ticks) which is more than enough time to bring everyone up. After the AoE lands, cast Wild Growth (usually on the melee so it hits as many targets as possible) to help bring them up faster.

Between the AoE abilities though you should help heal the tanks. Mana shouldn't be an issue, so there's no point standing there doing nothing, and no point healing people who don't need it. Druids are easily (IMO) the most flexible of healers, so you really can be a good raid healer while helping heal the tanks too.

The times when there are random spike raid damage often have AoE damage as well (eg Ignis, Kologarn, XT), so you'll usually have rejuvs on the raid anyway, so the response would be to Swiftmend + Nourish spam if needed. For those that don't you can judge how quickly you need to heal them and choose the right spell for the job (Regrowth if you've got time for the HoT to heal them, or Rejuv+SM for fast large heal, or Nourish for a fast small heal).

[Alltat]

...my fastest heals are either Rejuv/Swiftmend or Nurish (I admit that I use Regrowth often in place of Nurish). I believe both are slower than Shaman and Pallies fast heals (I could be wrong though).

Rejuv -> Swiftmend is about as fast as anything gets, since the Swiftmend will land exactly one second after you click that rejuv (assuming haste soft cap). Nourish has the same casting time as LHW and FoL, though it does require a HoT to be really effective. You should be able to just keep rejuv up on everyone in a ten man, though.

[kahon]

now, also not trying to brag, i play a resto druid in 25 man HTOC, TOC, and hardmodes in ulduar, and also 10 man versions of the like

being that you say you raid 10 mans, im going to assume your gear isnt perfect, biggest thing that would help you is to make sure your soft haste cap (enough haste with gift of the earthmother to make your GDC 1 sec) once you get that, its all about keeping the rejuv's up on the full raid, including tanks, 10 people, aprox 12 seconds to hot eveyone (with useing a WG in there) gives you plenty of time to SM if you need to, or regrowth a tank, on fights where people take spike amounts of damage, nourish WILL be your friend, yeah the mana cost is garbage but if your soft haste caped and your reaction times are fast enough, it should hit before your shaman and pally buddies can snipe your heal

[Beast024]

w/e just dont be a baddie I can be in all 175 lvl gear and out heal the 5/5 t8 shammys its all about knowing where the dmg is going before the dmg actually hits




Conceited = Thinking you are better than everyone else

Confident = Knowing you are better than everyone else

[Cerelli]

w/e just dont be a baddie I can be in all 175 lvl gear and out heal the 5/5 t8 shammys its all about knowing where the dmg is going before the dmg actually hits




Conceited = Thinking you are better than everyone else

Confident = Knowing you are better than everyone else

the is quite possibly the most constructive and useful post i've ever seen on these forums. hats off to you, sir.
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[Fbl]

i'd like to see your armory link (glyphs, talents, gear, gems, enchants)
shamans shouldn't overheal you on raid... at least not for reasons you claim it to be...
chain heals are "slower" than hots...

[Rowen]

Recount performance is dependant on the fight. On bosses where the raid suffers continuous damage (like iron council hard, mimiron p2, twin valkyrs) it'll show some ridiculuos numbers. If the raid takes some regular discrete big hit, usually chains and circles are better. Even then, you'll do quite well recount wise just hotting the tanks, even if it's not really neccesary; in my experience, the firt sign of too many healers in the raid is druids doing little healing and a lot of overhealing.

[ihaz]

Recount performance is dependant on the fight. On bosses where the raid suffers continuous damage ... like ... twin valkyrs

wat?

[Wildanimal]

I know there are druids out there who keep rejuv and 3lifeblooms on multiple targets the whole fight. its a lot of work but he does top healing all the time.

i tend to use regrowth a lot so theres a lot of those hots out there. i also learn which people tend to take more damage then the rest and thats who i keep rejuvs on. and I always use wild growth every time its up. theres different healing styles as a druid.

/agree
Try to keep Rejuv & Lifebloom stacks on all the tanks and people that are taking the most damage... also, if it is a fight that you can anticpate incoming Raid AoE damage try to start throwing rejuvs on AS MANY people as you can like 10 secs before the incoming damage. Then you can Swiftmend/Regrowth/Nourish the people that need healing the most as your HoTs heal the rest. That sums up Druid healing in a nutshell. 8)


oh Yeah! If you have the mana... throw a Wildgrowth almost every CD during a fight...

[Lorliean]

Well for overhealing you should be at the top of the charts as of the recent patch all druid HOT's are now counted towards even after the target has full health. One pointer I would give you in 10 mans with 3 healers I say spam rejuv on everyone that you think are threat hogs.

And after that spam nourish on anyone who is takeing a bit of damage no matter how little. And of course keep at least 2 Lifeblooms on the tanks... AND if you have time give the MELEE DPS/tanks wildgrowth. Im constintaly on the top or very near the top of my healing charts in all my raids.

For 25 man raids tho HOT's are king. Simply put. Wanna check out my gear/Jems/Spec/Glyphs look me up in WoWarmory Same name as my screen name.

[Rowen]

wat?

I may be mistaken, but there's an Aoe working continuously in twin valkirs, and people tend to eat balls of different color. I direct you to the ensidia video of their 25 heroic fight.

[Alltat]

oh Yeah! If you have the mana... throw a Wildgrowth almost every CD during a fight...

And if you don't have the mana, switch your gear around until you do. WG is effective enough that you should be using it any time it won't all be wasted on overhealing. If you're using other spells because you lack mana, it likely means that someone else has to pick up your slack.

Conceited = Thinking you are better than everyone else

Confident = Knowing you are better than everyone else

Believing that to actually be true automatically puts you in the former category.

[doomchken]

My first comment is that druid healing is the one type without real guidelines for instance i use rejuv and nourish with regrowths only on tank and when the raid takes sustained damage(using WG and swiftmend on every CD). I really only use lifebloom when i have to run around and don't want to waste GCD's. Healing style doesn't matter as long as it works for you but if you understand the mechanics of the fight you can top the healing meters any time as even our tank healing is amazing with the buffs to nourish. BTW no recount isn't a perfect test but it is alot better then many people give it credit for as far as measuring healing is concerned.

[axio]

In about 90% of the fights it is possible to anticipate damage, so just pre-hot accordingly. Rolling LBs on the tank will also get you up there on healing done since it ticks every second. Also, if your casters spread out a lot try standing as much as you can between them and using WG on yourself, this will make it cover more. I have the WG glyph for 25 mans and I can usually stand between casters and melee and get 60% of the raid with 1 spell.

Honestly though, 3 healers for a 10 man is a bit much once you have the gear for it. H TOC or Ulduar HMs may need 3 healers, but you should be able to handle Naxx & Ulduar with only 2 healers.

You may also want to take a look at: http://ensidia.com/home/guides/druid...art-1-general/

A good fight to use as an example would be Sapphiron in Naxx. Since the raid is always taking damage it you should easily be #1.

Also post a link to your armory if you want more specific responses. If you don't want everyone to know your character's name there are websites that let you link an armory without a name on it, just Google "Nameless armory" or something similar.

BTW no recount isn't a perfect test but it is alot better then many people give it credit for as far as measuring healing is concerned.

I agree, everyone says "meters don't matter", but they do. You just can't be an idiot when you look at them. For example, a dps that is bringing mostly utility or has to do something specific in the fight (like rogues having to keep energy for kick) won't be as high as some of the other dps. But if you have 2 paladins on tank healing and 1 is #2 and 1 is #5 then yeah you probably need to look in to why he is #5. Meters are important, and anyone that says they aren't is an idiot and is probably one of the ones that is constantly low on the meter.

[Mudkiper]

Here's your job as a resto druid, you blanket the raid with hot's, in 10 man this is very easy to have every raid member with rejuv, every 5 seconds you should wild growth (WG is a bit buggy, I use a macro personally to target myself then target last target when I cast it). Keep regrowth / rejuv / lifebloom on MT to help vs spike damage. gg 9k HPS. If anyone get's really low swiftmend or NS+HT, if there off CD use nourish, dont use regrowth on the raid.